KEY POINTS:
Nearly three decades ago, Warren Bolton was cleaning toilet bowls in his Taranaki motel and John Sargent was tending some of the world's finest thoroughbreds in England.
Today at Riccarton, this unlikely pair come together as protagonists in the group one $325,000 New Zealand Bloodstock 1000 Guineas. Sargent trains the $1.90 favourite Lovetrista, and Bolton produces Anna Bek, unbeaten in three appearances and, if you take a line through the TAB odds, the one most likely to trouble Lovetrista.
Winning a group one is not a new experience for either - Bolton was part-owner of the 1988 Cox Plate winner Poetic Prince. This time is that Anna Bek is prepared by Bolton himself. Poetic Prince was trained by John Wheeler.
John Sargent has prepared his own winners at racing's elite level.
Bolton was a farmer before 1980, when he built and operated the Saddle and Sulky Motel, adjacent to the back straight of New Plymouth racecourse.
The demands of running a motel he says is even greater than training racehorses. "It was like being in jail," he recalls.
"We had 14 units and it wasn't enough to support employing an office woman, so my wife and I did that side of it as well."
But it worked out well for the couple. "We built the motel just before the petrochemical boom in Taranaki. For seven or eight years, while they built the plant, we housed many of the workers and had 100 per cent occupancy. We did well, it set us up." Bolton has a few horses around him as an owner/trainer and operates from the 20-hectare Bell Block property the late Malcolm Smith prepared so many winners from.
Lovetrista, by Rock Of Gibraltar from Tristalove, has racing's blue blood flowing through her veins.
Anna Beck, even if not of quite the same ilk, claims her own talented relations.
Some raised eyebrows when Bolton declared he was heading to the 1000 Guineas after a modest winning debut in late September. They raised them even higher when Bolton revealed he'd punted his filly heavily at long odds when the TAB's fixed-odds book was first opened.
Winning the 1000 Guineas is worth a whole lot more to the owner in broodmare value than even the substantial winning stake, so the TAB punt won't be what changes Bolton's life if Anna Beck scores today, but Bolton is a member of the Taranaki Four-Wheel Drive club and the TAB cheque will be enough to buy him a couple of new machines.
"Outside of the four-wheel drive, I have no interests other than horse racing," he says.
That's no problem. Aidan O'Brien admitted to the same in Melbourne this week, and it hasn't done him much harm. "I don't know what my wife sees in me," O'Brien said. "I'm dead boring."
The Cox Plate is a wonderful race to win, but Bolton admits the 1000 Guineas will mean as much, if not more.
"It's a classic race and it doesn't come any better. To win an Auckland Cup or a Wellington Cup is secondary to this."
The pressure of big races can sometimes make connections claim or admit to some fanciful things.
"I reckon if I could win this I'd hang up my bridle."
Yeah, well. Bolton doesn't know if Anna Beck is good enough to beat the favourite, but he knows he has his filly as good as he can get her.
Bolton says don't expect to see a long face if Anna Bek is beaten.
"We're the underdog and there has to be a question about the distance - she hasn't run 1600m yet.
"But win, lose or draw we'll be happy.
"We're in this for total pleasure."
